"If Not Now" Goes International...Twice

The 3rd Annual China Women’s Film Festival has selected ‘If Not Now’ to compete in its short film competition in Beijing, China in late November 2015. This festival’s mission is to support women filmmakers in China and around the world.

Also, our film has won Best Dramatic Film from the Cinevana Istanbul Film Festival in Turkey.

"Our film started out with such humble beginnings," said producer Scott Takeda. "We wanted to tell a simple story about a family dealing with dementia because our director Lori Kay Allred’s mother had it. And now, this film is going to be showing in China and has won in Istanbul."

Filmmakers On-Location in Croatia

This month, our creative team flew overseas to begin production of our short film The Decision. The film will compete in Denver’s 48 Hour Film Project – an international competition where teams first compete locally to write, shoot, and edit a short film in 48 hours. Later the winning local films compete in a Worldwide competition called Filmapalooza for the opportunity to go to Cannes Film Festival.

Writer/director Lori Kay Allred gives direction to lead actress Leslee Crisman in Motovun Croatia (July 2015)

“This year, we’ve decided to shoot the film in Croatia because I have an art show in Split, Croatia in a week,” said producer Scott Takeda.  “It felt like a fun challenge to shoot a film while I was already over here. As things turn out, none of our film will actually be shot in Denver. We have another part of our team in Albuquerque to shoot a small segment, while the rest of us are in a hilltop town called Motovun, Croatia, just off the border of Slovenia.”

Filmmaker Scott Takeda works with team member Bojan Savicevic.

Leading the creative team is national Emmy winner Lori Kay Allred. She also directed last year’s film "If Not Now," which placed 2nd in Denver’s 48 Hour Film Project and also won Best Actress and Best Cinematography. This year, she will write the script as well as direct it.

Filmmakers Win National Telly Award

This summer, a documentary film produced by the our creative team picked up a national Silver Telly Award – the top prize.

Our short film “Melissa” was produced through director Scott Takeda's production company Takeda Entertainment. The film competed in the documentary film category. In this film, Lori Kay Allred followed Stage-4 cancer patient Melissa as she adjusted to life with incurable lung cancer. We captured moments ranging from her preparing Thanksgiving dinner with family to wrestling with the difficult decision to retire.

“The entire team is celebrating,” said Takeda. “We put our hearts and souls in to telling her story. We appreciate the opportunity to show her resilience and human spirit. While we don’t produce our films to win awards, it’s always nice when people independently say we did a good job.”

Since 1988, the Telly Awards reward creative excellence in advertising, television and film. 

Filmmakers Start Production On Latest 48 Hour Film

Filmmakers Lori Kay Allred and Scott Takeda watch in video village from their 2014 film “If Not Now.”

This month, our filmmakers begins pre-production on a short film for Denver’s 48 Hour Film Project. We will write, shoot, and edit a film in 48 hours as a part of an international script-to-screen competition.

“We love the 48,” said producer Scott Takeda. “We learn so much about being efficient storytellers, and how to be more effective with visuals and sound. And it’s fun too.”

This will be our fifth year producing these quick-turn competition films. Lori Kay Allred returns as our director after directing last year’s entry.

In 2014, judges awarded our film “If Not Now” prizes for Best Cinematography and Best Actress. They also named us 1st Runner Up for Best Film.

This year’s competition kicks off July 31st when dozens of Denver teams will pull a genre out of a hat and be assigned a required object, line-of-dialogue, and a character to include in their films.

6/5/15 UPDATE – Leslee Crisman has signed on to be a lead actor in our film. We are super excited to have Leslee as part of our cast. She is represented by ESI Management out of Los Angeles.

6/19/15 UPDATE – Kristen Rakes (‘The Last Stand’) has also signed to be a lead actor in our film. Kristen brings great comedic timing to her roles and recently starred in the short film “Low/Fi” which screened at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival. She is represented by Linda McAlister Talent out of LA.

7/2/15 UPDATE – Scott Takeda (‘Dallas Buyers Club’ and ‘Gone Girl’) has joined the cast as a supporting actor. On the small screen, he recently guest starred in NBC’s ‘Grimm’ and ABC’s ‘American Crime.’ On the big screen, he just wrapped a Paramount comedy opposite Tina Fey titled ‘Whiskey Tango Foxtrot,’ scheduled for a 2016 release. He’s represented by Donna Baldwin Agency out of Denver.

7/13/15 UPDATE – Ariel Rakes (‘Low/Fi’) has joined the crew as our cinematographer. He’s an in-demand lenser who recently wrapped the indie drama “The Garden.”

"If Not Now" Begins Festival Run at SENE Film Festival

Director Lori Kay Allred and producer Scott Takeda walk the red carpet with actor Catherine McGuire at the closing ceremonies of the SENE Film Festival at the Columbus Theatre in Providence, Rhode Island. (April 2015)

This month, our dramatic short film "If Not Now" began its festival run at the 8th Annual SENE Film Festival in Providence, Rhode Island.

(Second from left) "If Not Now" actor Catherine McGuire and director Lori Kay Allred answer questions in the filmmaker Q&A after the Friday evening screening at Columbus Theater in Providence, Rhode Island. (April 2015)

"This is my first film festival so I had no idea what to expect," said director Lori Kay Allred. "However all of my director colleagues strongly suggested this festival because its programmers were very selective, so I'm looking forward to seeing a lot of terrific films and meeting the filmmakers."

"I was happy because we came home with a nomination," said producer Scott Takeda. "SENE Film Festival jurors recognized the beautiful cinematography of Dave Klein."